On July 13, Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago welcomed 109 souls for burial at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 2755 W, 111th St. They were the last group to be buried in 300 plots donated to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2012 following a backlog on burials.

The backlog started in large part because the previous year the State of Illinois ended its practice of paying funeral directors to bury the indigent. When Catholic Cemeteries heard of the backlog, they offered space at Mount Olivet.

Cardinal Cupich led a prayer service with funeral directors and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle at the cemetery to bless and inter the remains. The remains of five unidentified people, 24 unborn children and the cremated remains of 80 indigent people were buried on July 13.

In Cook County, unborn children are still considered human remains and must be buried. Other counties consider them medical waste and dispose of them. Since Catholic Cemeteries started these burials, the remains of 1,482 souls have been interred.

The section of Mount Olivet reserved for the remains of deceased people unidentified by the examiner’s office, the indigent — those who didn’t have money for burial and whose family didn’t have money to bury them — and unborn babies from Stroger Hospital now has a black stone marker dedicated in their honor that reads, “This memorial is dedicated to those whose earthly remains were entrusted to the care of the people of Cook County. May their souls rest in peace.”

Maurice Moore Memorials and Chicago Monuments donated the monument. As with previous burials, members of the Cook County Funeral Directors Association donated their time and transportation of the remains from the morgue. Not only do the directors transport the remains but they stand by them during the service and lay white roses atop the caskets. 

Catholic Cemeteries donates their services along with the plots.

“I think it’s very important to realize that every day here in our neighborhoods and in our city and our county there are people who live alone, who die alone, people who feel excluded and so even though at times we don’t include people in the table of life and we do our best to try to overcome that, surely at that moment they shouldn’t feel excluded,” Cardinal Cupich said following the service. “It’s an important message for all of us who live in this city to make sure we do our best to minimize the possibility f people living and dying alone. This is a monument to that. It’s a monument to inclusiveness not exclusion.” 

It’s also mercy in action, said Roman Szabelski, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries.

“It’s a corporal work of mercy, burying the dead. We respect human life from conception to death. It’s only appropriate that we would make sure that they would be given a dignified and respectful burial,” said Szabelski. “Regretfully there is a part of our community who can’t afford to do it so we offer to do it for them.”